New Year Resolutions: Rupert Murdoch Twitter Starts 2012

He had a year plagued by scandal at News Corp. in 2011, and he was accused of working too hard to avoid public comment. But Rupert Murdoch is starting 2012 off in a different way -- he's opened a Twitter account and apparently isn't afraid to tweet.

The media mogul's Twitter handle is rupertmurdoch. And in the first day of tweets he had almost 50,000 followers. He didn't let them down, either, delivering tweets with perspective on the New Year and more. A spokesperson for News International confirmed that the user rupertmurdoch wasn't a fake -- it's really Murdoch.

The account was opened on New Year's Day and Murdoch's first message revealed his resolutions.

My resolutions, try to maintain humility and always curiosity, he tweeted. And of course diet!

Murdoch also tweeted New Year's best wishes: Happy 2012, he said. May it be better than all experts predict. Has to be! Must must change everything to create jobs for all, especially young.

Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, also opened an account and began tweeting in the New Year.

Rupert Murdoch's first tweets came while he spent New Year's Day in St. Bart's in the Caribbean.

Back to work tomorrow, he tweeted. Enough idling!

Among those welcoming Murdoch to Twitter was John Prescott, former U.K. deputy prime minister.

Welcome to Twitter, he wrote to Murdoch. I've left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail!

Murdoch and News Corp. were at the center of attention in 2011 over a hacking scandal. He closed his News of the World UK tabloid amid the scandal after it was revealed that the newspaper hacked the accounts of celebrities and a murdered teenager.

Throughout the years of building and growing his media empire, which includes traditional newspapers, a newswire, and books, Murdoch has developed a reputation as a tyrant of sorts who liked to avoid regular public exchange.

Murdoch is a pirate, wrote author Ken Auletta in a 1995 profile of the billionaire. He will cunningly circumvent rules, and sometimes principles, to get his way.